Lightroom 4 Beta

I have been watching the LR4 beta videos and like the look of many features. I am about to attack my archives for editing and was thinking of running them through the beta system. Only concern is what happens on March 31st at the end of the trial period? Do I lose my edits or can I just buy into the new LR 4 - assuming it launches then?

Any comments on the Beta would be interesting to hear.

I think it is too much of a gamble to put too much work into your images on LR4 beta. The catalog could change and there is no promises made that the catalog you would build in LR4 beta will be usable in the shipping version of LR4. You can rest assured that LR3 catalogs will be migrated to LR4 when it ships. I wouldn't do it, YMMV.

I would do as Keith suggested, run some images through LR4 beta but don't build a big catalog since it probably won't be carried over, but if you make sure you write all your changes into exif you shouldn't lose anything but the catalog structure.

Hmm, probably wise. Do we know if they plan to launch LR4 in April then? Didn't see a launch date

I've been running some client restoration work through LR4 beta to force myself to learn how it works quickly. I made my initial few passes and cropping in LR3 and then exported those images with changes as DNG files for importing into LR4. I assume that today's LR 4 beta DNG files will be readable by the official release. If not, then I have the important data saved in the LR3 catalog. I've already exported the jpeg finals for the client anyway so my real risk is low.

The improvements over LR3 are worthwhile indeed.

ME

I've heard March 31st for the release date.